Walgett COVID-19 lockdown: serious coronavirus cases to be evacuated by ambulance in contingency plan

Chief Executive of Western NSW Local Health District, Scott McLachlan, told media on Thursday that health contingency plans for a major outbreak involved evacuating patients in need of a hospital.

Many small town hospitals are Multi-Purpose Services that also act as age care homes, and patients would need to be moved away from them, he said.

"To be honest, the vast majority of that [treatment] will be in our larger facilities in Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst where we know that we have the ability to care for critically ill patients with their intensive care units," he said.

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"Wherever possible we will support people in their homes, or a place where we can safely care for them. That's certainly the case for the family in Walgett at the moment.

"What we do want to do is make sure patients get to the best care they can receive and in the main that will be either Dubbo, Bathurst or Orange. We will have those hospitals prepared and ready."

The region's health authorities swung into action with extraordinary speed on Wednesday after the coronavirus spread to the tiny, and vulnerable, community of Walgett.

Eight local government areas were put under lockdown orders within hours.

Mr McLachlan told media that some 5000 Pfizer vaccines were already on their way to Dubbo, set to arrive Thursday afternoon.

A mobile specialist vaccination team will head into Walgett on Friday, before heading to Lightning Ridge and Colloranabri in days to come.

Vaccination rates across the local health district have already doubled this week compared with last week and will double again next week, Mr McLachlan announced.

Pfizer jabs dispatched to Sydney for use for high school students sitting the HSC have already returned in western NSW, he said.

"Today we took a delivery of five trays of Pfizer, now that's the biggest delivery we've ever seen in western NSW and that's been fast-tracked to help us increase the vaccination in western NSW, but particularly in Walgett," he said.

"We're also sending a team of 10 people up to Walgett tomorrow to help us fast-track vaccinations with Pfizer with the Walgett community."

Mr McLachlan said the situation remained "incredibly concerning".

"What we are seeing is community spread within the Aboriginal community both in Dubbo and in Walgett. That's incredibly concerning."

Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, said the situation in the remote parts of his electorate was concerning.

"My observations of the communities in the west is that they have been behaving very responsibly and I think that the protocols they've got in place will mean that they will manage this outbreak very well," he said.

"The concern obviously is that there is not a high number of intensive care beds, and obviously the population is quite vulnerable with higher levels of chronic health conditions.

"There will be a swift response."

The RFDS, the Commonwealth Government, Aboriginal Health Clinics, and the state government would have to work together to crush the virus, he said.

The strategy will be to vaccinate the Walgett community "as quickly as possible".

Mr McLachlan said 37 per cent of the Walgett community had received their first vaccination, and about 17 per cent had their second. Vaccination rates are less than half that average for Aboriginal communities across western NSW.

The town currently has a single case.